Giraglia Rolex Cup kicks off next week

Inshore racing followed by trip from St Tropez to Genoa via a rock off Corsica

Thursday 26 June will see more than 120 yachts ranging in size from 30 footers to the latest 90 foot maxis line-up for the 243-mile race from St Tropez in France around the Giraglia Rock and north to Genoa, Italy for the finish. At stake is the Giraglia Rolex Cup along with the current race record. But perhaps most importantly is the honour and pleasure that more than 1500 sailors will extract from racing on the finest yachts across the ever tricky Mediterranean Sea.

Situated just 1.5 miles to the north of Corsica, measuring 800 metres long by 50 metres wide and whose highest point is just 60 metres above sea level is the rocky islet known as ‘la Giraglia’. Exposed to all wind directions and isolated from humanity for most of the year this once strategically important rock with its lighthouse, medieval tower and accompanying chapel, has for the past 51 years lent its name and served as the turn mark to the largest offshore race in the Mediterranean.

The success of the Giraglia Rolex Cup over the years has led the event to expand into a week-long regatta split into two parts. The first section consists of three days of inshore races starting and finishing from the Gulf of St Tropez. Then on the fourth day the fleet starts the long race, the course taking the boats initially south west along the French coast, rounding the island of Levant before crossing the Ligurian Sea to the Giraglia. From here the fleet will turn North to cross the Gulf of Genoa to the finish line in front of this famous Italian port that lends its name to the Gulf.

The race record set in 1998 by Riviera de Rimini stands at 24 hours 21 minutes and 47 seconds, which equates to an average speed of 10 knots. This year there are 12 boats over 20 Metres in overall length each capable of beating the record, should the wind conditions comply.

Among those boats, and certainly favourite to collect line honours whilst making her second regatta appearance to date in the Med, is Neville Crichton’s 90ft Alfa Romeo, the line honours winner of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race last year.

The highlight of this event from a spectator’s point of view is the mixture of ultra modern and classic yachts parading up and down in front of the old town of St Tropez before being released on the long offshore race. From the point of view of the competitor it is the thrill of the start, the excitement of the inshore section, the anticipation of landfall at the Giraglia Rock and the satisfaction at the finish.

In association with the Société Nautique de St Tropez, the local organiser, the Rolex Giraglia Cup is organised by the Yacht Club Italiano. It was the YCI’s present day’s Commodore Carlo Croce whose father devised the race 51 years ago. In 1953 Beppe Croce, along with two colleagues René Levainville and Franco Gavagnin, let their ideas flow as they sat around a café table one night in Paris. Their brain child was to launch a sailing challenge between the Italian and French Mediterranean fleets using a common piece of water.

The event has been sailed almost ever since and last year’s Golden Jubilee event attracted a record 160 starters for the race that has been named by some as the ‘Fastnet of the Mediterranean’.

The first boat at the Giraglia Rock will be awarded the Beppe Croce Trophy, the first yacht to cross the finish line the René Levainville Trophy and the boat with the best corrected time overall for the long race, the Giraglia Rolex Cup.

Entry list

Sail no	Boat name	Skipper	LOA	GPH
FRA - 28287	Alcidia	Guy Nicolas	10.68	637.9
GBR - 7070	Alexia	Alberto Roemmers	24.1	444.4
FRA - 2170	Almogaver	Antoine Illes	9.496	659.7
FRA - 21584	Argo	Maurice Chauvin	11.924	609.9
ITA - 333	Aurora	Paolo Bonomo	12.475	588.3
FRA - 21690	Ay! Ay! Ay!	Leopldo Gavito	13.83
ITA - 13701	Black Angel	Di Liberto/Costigliolo	11.36	620
ITA - 14228	Blue Way	Paolo Di Marco	11.8	640.7
ITA - 14025	Boccon di Mare	Gianni Piccolis
ITA - 13579	Capitani Coraggiosi 2	Felcini/Gavino/Santoro/Cavaletto	12.1	601.6
ITA - 3703	Clean Energy	Alberto Cogni	12.1	600.3
FRA - 9384	Coralion	Patrick Vellieux	12.86	592.2
ITA - 1811	Edimetra	Ernesto Gismondi	20.01	495.9
GBR - 7602R	Enigma of London	Charles Dunstone	23.4	430
FRA - 4724	Exocet 1	Maurice Hens	14.5	572.5
ITA - 13740	Exploit	Piergiorgio Ravaioni	12.1	600.5
ITA - 13903	Extasy	Daniele Abolaffio	11.92	614.9
ITA - 14078	F.D.V. Diadora	Velapiù srl	11.4	652.3
21883	Fare Well	Pierrejean	12.1	599.3
FRA - 18561	Fauve	Paul Nicolai	15.54	561.5
FRA - 6345	Felicie	Gilbert Fournier
MON - 760	Garuda	Jean Niclaus	23.26	538
FRA - 6387	Gitana VI	Baron Benjamin de Rothschild	65'
FRA - 29002	Green Island	Guy Chaise	16.05	624
FRA - 9445	Imagine	J.C. André/G. Argetties	13.73	566.7
FRA - 28977	Ioleste	Chevallier/Decourt	15.95
FIN - 9217	Iris	Roberto Monti	12.52	541.8
ITA - 12378	Jaro VI	Alberto Musso	11.99	605.1
NED - 6600	Katalyx	M.B.T. de Groot	16.97	535.3
ITA - 5000	Kauris III°	Marco Tronchetti Provera	32.83
ITA - 14253	Kikaki	Marco Rigamonti	12.69	632.8
ITA - 12130	Lady Blues	Roberto Iorio	15.92	553.2
FRA - 9273	Lexington	Van de Woestyne/Brugiere	10.06	657.5
ITA - 14185	Lulù	Marco Bagnoli	11.924	614.9
SLO - 2002	Magic Jena	Domenico Cilenti	23.98	347.9
FRA - 28465	Magic Simca	Laurent Lavaysse	12.1	599
ITA - 6	Malf…amato	G-P. Lauzzi	11.99
ITA - 13898	Mariolina	Andrea La Volpe	9.5	682.5
ITA - 1212	Mariposa	Rui Cabecadas de Sousa	23.01	479.2
ITA - 11788	Maya I	Lucio Crispo	15.82	577.2
MO - 9206	Monomotapa	Alberto Querci	14.36
ITA - 14213	Movida	Bertex Marine	15.48
LUX - 999	Mr Fips	Patrick Mersch	16.74	533.9
GER - 5245	Opus One	Wolfgang Stolz	13.83	549.3
ITA - 2727	Quinta Santa Maria	Silvano Boroli	27.4	426.9
FRA - 7621	Rhapsodie III	Jean-Jacques Godet	11.915	656.6
FRA - 28273	Safioran	Philippe Morel	11.5	657.7
ITA - 13407	Sesto Senso	Roberto Bucciarelli	11.92	614.7
NZL - 80	Shockwave	Team Alfa Ltd (N. Crichton)	27.43
ITA - 2992	Solenia 2	Roberto Ferrero	14.835	570.7
NED - 6868	Sotto Voce	Arien Van Vemde	20.1	465.4
MO - 206	Speedy Gecko	Gilberto Sandretto	17.25
ITA - 11417	Spirit of Shardana	Alberto Piazza	11.928	606.3
BEL - 568	Storms'	H. Storms	11.75	674.1
	Tazkeena II	Nicholas Wrigley
ITA - 12911	Wave Dancer	Lorenzo Pedemonte	9.42	709.2
FRA - 5520	White Dolphin	Francis Mons	20.4	87 (CIM)
ITA - 5502	Windrift	Peter Blomqvist	22.85	555.2
ITA - 13763	Xantorilla	Sabba Orefice	11.92	615
8867		Sven Vandendiessche ??
FRA - 9503		Christian Tiggeler (??)